A rookie cop from Saugus was stripped of his gun and badge after he was arrested at the famed Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for child abuse Saturday, a crime that allegedly occurred after he was caught by the father of a 12-year-old girl with a hidden camera attached to his sneaker, the Herald has learned. Michael Tarallo, 30, was arrested inside the casino strip Saturday afternoon after the girl’s father “observed something he didn’t like and confronted the suspect,” said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police spokesman, Officer Bill Cassell. “He had a video camera at the time of the struggle,” Cassell said, refusing to elaborate further. Authorities searched Tarallo’s hotel room and recovered videotapes. Cassell said Las Vegas investigators were awaiting a search warrant to view those tapes. The child abuse charge stems from an assault on the little girl, who was hit by a cell phone allegedly hurled by Tarallo as he attempted to flee her father, and ... http://news.bostonherald.com

Some 35,000 petroglyphs located in Pakistan's Indus River area will soon be flooded by a giant dam. An archeologist from Heidelberg is trying to save as much as he can before encroaching modernity destroys the remote area's cultural history. At first sight, it's difficult to tell whether the work going on near Nanga Parbat mountain (8,126 meters, 26,660 feet) has more to do with preserving the world or heralding its demise. Down by the Indus River, near a farmers' settlement called Basha, workers have built landing sites for helicopters. They have set up a cargo cablecar above the stream and technicians on the northern banks are drilling holes into the rock in order to search out hollow spaces in the depths. This being an earthquake zone, seismic analyses are also being conducted....http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,479215,00.html

Front-runners Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama go face to face along with six other Democratic presidential contenders on Thursday at the opening debate of the fast-starting 2008 campaign. With the presidential election in November 2008 still more than 18 months away, the eight Democratic White House candidates meet in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in the earliest presidential debate ever. Clinton, 59, the senator from New York who is seeking to become the first woman president, has been leading in most national polls. But Obama, 45, a Illinois senator who could be the first black president, has been rising in some polls and matched her in fund raising. Their face-off comes in an early primary state that holds the first nominating contest in the South in January 2008. "People are going to be able to see these candidates face to face for the first time and start to evaluate them," said Joe Erwin, chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3083104

A highway pileup in northern Indiana killed at least eight people Thursday near a rain-drenched construction zone on the Indiana Toll Road, police said.The eight confirmed victims included five who died in a single vehicle, said 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten of the Indiana State Police.The 6:45 a.m. crash about 25 miles east of South Bend involved three semitrailers and three cars and may have been caused by driver inattention, Bursten said."As far as who was the inattentive driver, we're trying to determine that now," he said.Investigators were collecting evidence and working to identify the victims, Bursten said.Bristol Fire Chief William Dempster said four of the victims were Amish residents of nearby LaGrange County....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,268688,00.html

Japan's abhorrent practice of enslaving women to provide sex for its troops in World War II has a little-known sequel: After its surrender -- with tacit approval from the U.S. occupation authorities -- Japan set up a similar "comfort women" system for American GIs.An Associated Press review of historical documents and records -- some never before translated into English -- shows American authorities permitted the official brothel system to operate despite internal reports that women were being coerced into prostitution. The Americans also had full knowledge by then of Japan's atrocious treatment of women in countries across Asia that it conquered during the war. Tens of thousands of women were employed to provide cheap sex to U.S. troops until the spring of 1946, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur shut the brothels down.The documents show the brothels were rushed into operation as American forces poured into Japan beginning in August 1945....http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/25/comfort.women.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us

French voters who supported defeated centrist candidate Francois Bayrou are facing a tough choice over who to back in the presidential poll second round. Mr Bayrou's refusal to back either Nicolas Sarkozy or Segolene Royal has left both scrambling for his votes. But Ms Royal's zealous wooing of Mr Bayrou's backers has drawn criticism from her left-wing allies. Mr Sarkozy, who took 31.2% of the vote, and Segolene Royal - on 25.9% - won through to the second round on 6 May. The 6.8 million people - 18.6% of all voters - who backed Mr Bayrou must now decide who will claim their vote in his place. "I find it impossible to make a decision," said 60-year-old Parisian Jacques Lauvergeat. "How do you decide between cholera and the plague?" Many of those who voted for Mr Bayrou are unhappy with the idea of Mr Sarkozy leading France and yet dissatisfied with Ms Royal as an alternative. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6595491.stm